To be shocked by running schools for profit

The government have overspent on academy conversions by £1billion - yep that's right 1 billion!! Crazy amounts of money. So now they want to allow academies to be run for profit. I don't feel comfortable with profiteering in the classroom. Everything nowadays seems to be able big business maximising profit- from horsemeat lasagne to schools.

Good schools are being forced to become academies using bullying tactics by the department of education. tinyurl.com/saveroke

They want to allow all academies to be run for profit. They are forcing schools all over the country to become sponsored academies. Apparently by 2015 they want all schools to be academies. They are using Ofsted to rubberstamp this by making inspections so tough that at least half of schools will fail and be forced to become academies.

Outside catering rules out profit on food, school trips affordability should be paramount NOT making money from children, uniform should be appropriately and affordable- where is the opportunity for profit?

If we allow for businesses to 'sponsor' resources, what are the implications of that? If coco cola, for example, made text books, what effect is the branding going to have on children? If Nike sponsor the PE lessons, how will that change the content of what they are taught?

However- if schools use their existing resources for public use: renting out school grounds to the public, making new buildings multi purpose etc then perhaps profit could be generated that way? Most schools do this already though, and sometimes to the detriment of the running of the school (e.g school events can't happen as external bookings exist or classrooms are damaged or pitches unusable after misuse etc).

Yes my eyes have opened. I still think most people are still asleep on this issue. Do we really want the likes of Rupert Murdoch or Burger chains running our schools. I am totally horrified by the prospect.

One sadly simple way of making a profit which a (state) school I was involved with did, is lease the building to a private company as part of their buildings portfolio allowing them to value their company higher for shareholders, and the school then rented it back paying more each time it was supposedly 'upgraded'.

The company's then responsible for maintaining it and can apply for public money for building contacts especially as the school was due agreed money because it was in such poor state.

End result was existing buildings falling to pieces, portacabin classrooms to cope with unuseable rooms, and new sports buildings going up on the cheap and rented out, new very fancy incredibly expensive disabled access built with different grant money, but created non wheelchair accessible, but caused schools rent increase, but wheelchair lift can't be fixed because no grant available, most of the buildings left disabled inaccessible as all grant money exhausted on non functioning entrance, but box ticked for disabled accessible. (not if your a child in a wheelchair, but in theory you can go) School now can't get more grants for years because it's had it's lot.

The company had nothing to do with the education of the kids, but poor management used the situation as an excuse for many things including not enough books for even one per two students.

They are now out of the rental contract but the debts left mean the teachers are being expected to spend less than standard non contact hours planning lessons so they can cover having a reduced numbers of teachers to try to lower the significant debts. War is declared, kids education only important for hostage negotiation.

Who benefits? The business. Who loses? Pretty much everyone else, as the ripples expand outwards.

Just one tiny way of how to make money out of involvement in a school without the feared branding direct involvement, but run down the staff, pupils, and actual value of the buildings in the process.

Another is you enlarge another school (2) to take school 1's pupils even though it's not walking distance. Then close school 1, even though there's already too few places in the area and a birth boom. You then knock down school 1 and build more housing using regeneration money, creating an even bigger need for places in a few years, but no available site for a school.

(for anyone who cares, something similars being done with many HA properties as well)

The school gets circa £4k-£5k per pupil per year from our taxes to educate our children.

If they cut the number of staff, use TAs more, reduce cleaning, reduce more expensive activities (anything creative, science equipment) and can get through the year spending only £3.5k-£4.5k, they would now get to keep the change as profit - whereas previously the budget was "use it or lose it".

YANBU to be upset but YABU to be surprised - education is big business to most of the companies running academies in the UK - it wont be long before they start going bust - and then the LEA will be expected to sort out the mess

Harris Academies are the template for this. Mainly in the SE but they are spreading likea dose of sypahills. Ruthless, both with staff and pupils alike. They are a number crunching machine to spit out statistics and results. Little pastoral care of staff or pupils.

While I tried to optimistic about the act, this has been on the horizon for a while. Our children's education is a money making exercise and academies are not accountable to local authorities so can get away with a lot more.

Our school (in NW London) is also being forced to become an academy. Our Parent Action Group website is www.savegladstoneparkschool.blogspot.co.uk (is it ok to have it here? is it just petitions that go on the petition board - though there is a petition within our website ).As people have been saying on the Michael Gove Chinese Burn website, it is time for a revolution. We need to march on Parliament with as many parents and staff from as many schools as possible.

The parents at Downhills school, North London, were making these arguments well over a year ago.

Because Gove cleverly introduced the forced academy programme under the banner of forcing intervention on 'failing schools', the great majority of schools went to great pains to distance themselves from those marked for forced academisation.

But in the word of Martin Niemoller , 'First they came for the 'failing' schools, but our school wasn't 'failing' so I didn't speak out.... etc'.

Rhonda Evans had just completed her film about 'Acad£mies and Li£s' - you can see it via this link